Craft Brewery Opening in The Valley
by I. B. Lyon
The growth of craft beers and breweries has exploded over the past 10 years. Craft breweries offer many different types of beer in many different unique flavors, and people have been flocking to the breweries to drink these local craft beers. Also, many of these craft breweries have restaurants as well. There are now about 10,000 breweries in America, and that is expected to grow. The majority of Americans live within 10 miles of an independent craft brewery. The Valley hasn’t had a craft brewery until now.
Porter Ailes has been drinking craft beers for as long as he can remember. He and his friends have always dreamed about starting a brewery, but they never had the funds to get one going. Porter has been a psychology instructor at Valley Tech Community College for 7 years now. Porter recently won around $80K in the MS Lottery, and he decided it was the time to make his dream come true. Ailes and his friends will start construction on the facility in the next month, and it will be on the vacant lot next to the Six Town Hollow town hall building. They have named their company Bluecat Brewing Co.
Bluecat Brewing will have an 8,000 square foot building, and it will house 4 different businesses inside the building. Half the space will be for the brewery and it’s equipment. 2,500 square feet will be for their restaurant, and 1,500 square feet will be evenly split between a tattoo parlor and a men’s beard grooming salon. Additionally, they will have outdoor seating for the restaurant, a playground for kids, and a small dog park.
Ailes said, “We’re so pumped to bring this unique idea to Six Town Hollow and The Valley. There’s nothing like it in the state that I’m aware of. We think it’ll attract a ton of people to Six Town Hollow and The Valley. We have everything you need at Bluecat Brewing. You can enjoy an awesome craft beer while eating a great burger with your dog. Afterwards, you can get your beard trimmed, and then end the day with a new tattoo. After getting your tattoo, you can listen to live music. We’ll have live music on the weekends. We have a playground for the kiddos too. Where else can you do all that?”
Initially Bluecat Brewing plans to have 3 beers, but they plan to expand their offerings in the future. The three beers are Bluecat Original IPA, King Kottonmouth (pale ale), and The Mighty Strong (pilsner named after the Strong River). Ailes said, “Our original 3 beers are strong, but we’ll expand our lineup in the future. We’ll also offer seasonal beers. Our food is going to be good too. We’ll have great burgers, wraps, pizza, catfish, and more.”
The young Valleyans that I talked with were very excited about Bluecat Brewing Co. One young male said, “This is awesome. My hipster friends and I don’t really have a place to hangout in The Valley, but we will now. I’ve been waiting to get my forearm sleeve tattoo finished, and it’ll be so cool to sip on a Bluecat beer with my dog by my side while getting that ink. I can’t grow a beard, but some of my buds are pumped about the beard grooming salon.”
Six Town Hollow Mayor Don Berry Henry said, “We don’t get a lot of outside visitors here, but I hope Bluecat Brewing will change that. We hope to get a ton of out-of-town visitors that travel along Hwy. 49. We’re very excited about the project.”
Construction on the facility will start in the next few weeks, and this will be a huge draw for the young people of The Valley and the surrounding areas in the future.